Radioactive Rain Detected in Los Angeles

Rain and mist that fell in Los Angeles last weekend was five times as radioactive as normal, environmental journalist and LA Weekly contributor Michael Collins reported on his website this week.

Collins tests samples with his own equipment and says that, on Saturday, he measured the highest proportion of radioactivity in the local environment since he began monitoring the local fallout from the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in March of 2011:

One misty rain sample collected in downtown Santa Monica was over five times normal background radiation, the highest level in Los Angeles Basin rain since this reporter began sampling and testing different media March 15, 2011, four days after the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns begin.

He called the findings "shocking" and said his readings would qualify that sample as a hazardous material under the California Highway Patrol's protocols.

Even background radiation Saturday night, which had apparently diminished significantly since his earlier sample, was 30 percent "hotter" than normal, he says.

Dennis Romero has worked on staff at several magazines and newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian, and, as a
young stringer, the New York Times.